METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OPTICAL IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION USING CONTOUR DETERMINATION

1 . A method for optical imaging of an object in transmission configuration, the method comprising:

a) obtaining contour coordinates of the object using source/detector configurations references;

b) acquiring optical data from a region of interest (ROI) of the object;

c) applying a weighting factor to said optical data as a function of the contour coordinates; and

d) reconstructing an image of the ROI using the weighted optical data and photon diffusion equation.

2 . The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining contour coordinates comprises optically scanning the object to determine object boundaries.

3 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the source/detector configurations references comprises source/detector configuration coordinates in a field of view of a scanner.

4 . The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said object is comprised between two substantially parallel plates.

5 . The method as claimed in claim 4 wherein said optically scanning comprises performing a raster scan.

6 . The method as claimed in claim 4 wherein said contour coordinates are obtained in a plane parallel to said parallel plates and wherein a shape of said object in a plane perpendicular to said parallel plates is predetermined thereby providing a 3 dimensional (3D) contour.

7 . The method as claimed in any one of claims 1 wherein the weighting factor is a function of optical properties of voxels outside of said ROI.

8 . The method as claimed in any ones of claim 1 wherein optical data for which corresponding photon paths are outside of said contour coordinates of said object are excluded from said reconstructing step, and said reconstructing step generates a 3D image depicting optical properties of the object.

9 . The method as claimed in any one of claims 8 further comprising a step of obtaining an average μ a and μ s ′ for use in the step of reconstructing the image.

10 . The method as claimed in any one of claims 9 further comprising a step of immersing said object in optically matching fluid.

11 . A method for optical imaging of an object in transmission configuration, the method comprising:

a) obtaining contour coordinates of the object;

b) determining a region of interest (ROI) within said contour coordinates; and

c) acquiring optical data from said ROI of the object wherein said acquiring of optical data comprises adjusting a light source intensity as a function of said contour coordinates to maximize signal to noise ratio within said ROI.

12 . The method as claimed in claim 11 wherein said contour is used to co-localize said ROI within optical images from different scans.

13 . The method as claimed in claim 11 wherein said object is a breast.

14 . A transmission optical imaging system comprising:

a) one or more light source for injecting light in an object;

b) one or more light detector for detecting light transmitted through said object;

c) an acquisition controller connected to said light source and light detector for collecting data at a plurality of source/detector configurations within said object;

d) a contour coordinate estimator for acquiring and calculating contour coordinates of the object;

e) an optical data estimator for selecting optical data relevant to said object as a function of contour coordinates, and for calculating and applying weighting factors to the optical data as a function of contour coordinates; and

f) an optical image generator for reconstructing an optical image based on said weighted optical data.

15 . The transmission optical imaging system of claim 14 , wherein the contour coordinate estimator is a raster scanner for optically scanning the object to determine the contour coordinates.